Home Cook Hero volunteers are essential to helping us ensure all transplant families come back to a home-cooked meal during their stay in Philadelphia.
We will be volunteering as a group to prepare a meal for the transplant patients and families at Gift of Life Family House!
Space is limited due to restrictions.
You may volunteer in any of the following ways:
- Prepare (on or off-site) and serve a meal for transplant patients and families which will be served at 6pm
- Donate pantry items for Gift of Life Family House guests from the Wish List
**IMPORTANT** Sign up for what you will be bringing/making for dinner at this link.
Gift of Life Howie’s House is continuing to take all necessary precautions to promote the safety and well-being of guests.
- All members (including children) must follow mask & vaccination requirement, as well as illness policy (noted here).
- We are strongly recommending that all guests, staff and volunteers to remain socially distant from each other.
- All desserts are being wrapped individually. Similar to before, our group is not required to wrap the desserts, but it is certainly welcomed if you so wish!
- A staff member or volunteer will be assigned during our visit. They will assist with showing our group where to find things and assist in all things kitchen related.
- For everyone’s safety, Gift of Life Howie’s House will continue to serve the meal cafeteria style.
Groups are only required to bring the ingredients for the meal. Howie’s House will provide all the tools you’ll need to prepare the meal in our fully-equipped kitchen complete with four ovens, stoves, microwaves, and sinks. We will also provide plates, platters, utensils, etc.
The amount of servings needed per meal depends on Howie’s House guest occupancy. We will be notified prior to their scheduled date with an estimated headcount. Based on current occupancy over the past several weeks, usually range from 50-55 people per night.
Gift of Life Howie's House serves as a “home away from home” for transplant patients and their families by providing temporary, affordable lodging, and supportive services to those who travel to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for transplant-related care. Gift of Life Howie's House is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization.
History
For more than 48 years, Gift of Life Donor Program—a federally designated non profit organ procurement organization—has served as the link in Eastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and Delaware, connecting patients awaiting organ and tissue transplants and those who donate these precious gifts of life.
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Since 1974, Gift of Life Donor Program has coordinated more than 53,500 organs for transplant and approximately 2 million tissue transplants that have resulted from Gift of Life donors.
Gift of Life Donor Program offices located just a couple of blocks away from Howie's House.
Recognizing the critical need for affordable accommodations and supportive services for transplant families, Gift of Life Donor Program and the Transplant Foundation collaborated to open a unique lodging facility for transplant candidates, recipients, family members, and living donors. That facility, Gift of Life Howie's House, officially opened its doors to transplant families in July 2011 in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia.
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A World Leader
For the 14th consecutive year, Gift of Life is the nation’s leading organ procurement organization, coordinating the most life-saving organs for transplant among all 57 U.S. OPOs. It represents an ongoing legacy of new beginnings from grieving families to those awaiting the “gift of life.”
In the Gift of Life service area—eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and Delaware—there are over 5,000 individuals waiting for a transplant, and it is likely that these candidates will have surgery at a transplant center served by Gift of Life Donor Program. Yet, many others living outside of this service area must travel to Philadelphia’s world-class hospitals for such treatment.
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Meeting a Need
While transplant outcomes have improved, the anxiety and challenges associated with the transplantation process continue to significantly impact each family member both emotionally and financially. Transplant patients and their families experience a great deal of stress and anxiety during their journey toward the gift of life. Endless hours of diagnosis, treatment, and waiting for the call for an available organ, false hopes when an available organ is not an ideal match, and the financial burden of medical treatment paired with time away from work are just some of the trials they face when a transplant is the only answer to a life-threatening diagnosis.
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